Rather than building complex physical sets, bringing hundreds of people (and their equipment) on-site in remote locations, and shooting multiple variations of the same basic scene, media producers can use LED walls and HDRi Maps –or fully-virtual processes–to shoot full productions with far less travel and waste.
Media ranging from The Mandalorian , to FX’s Snowfall , to myriad films and advertisements now use virtual production techniques. These techniques don’t just make production less expensive (Snowfall saved $49,000 per episode with virtual production)–they also have massive climate benefits.
The New York Times , for example, estimates that a large production can cause the release of over 2,800 tons of carbon dioxide (CO2)--as much as 11 round-trip journeys to the moon. Variety shares similar numbers ; one hour of produced TV content releases 2,844 tons of CO2 according to their data.
Virtual production can reduce these numbers dramatically–often by 90% or more.
Here at CGI.Backgrounds, we’ve provided high-resolution HDRi Maps and Backplates for virtual productions for nearly two decades. Studios use our HDRi Maps and Backplates to realistically light virtual scenes, and to provide visuals. We’re proud of our positive impact on the climate.
To celebrate Earth Day, we decided to do a deep dive into the climate benefits of virtual production, as well as our own impact. Spoiler alert: we’ve saved nearly 2 million tons of CO2 emissions over our company’s history–as much as over 250,000 homes use in a year
Here’s how–and why you should consider virtual production for your next media project.
The Carbon Impact of Traditional Production
To quantify the benefits of virtual production, we first need to understand the climate impact of traditional productions.
Traditional media productions cause CO2 emissions in a variety of ways–through travel for the crew involved in the shoot, accommodations for the crew and talent, shipping for equipment, props, and set pieces, and physical construction and disposal of sets, as well as on-location utilities and supporting services like catering and health/safety.
Producer Chris Chaundler estimates that a typical location shoot releases 2,844.67 tons of CO2 per hour of final, produced video. This is similar to an estimate of 2,840 metric tons from the New York Times.
Sony Pictures estimates in a recent study that producing a single TV scene on-location releases as much as 16.47 metric tons of CO2. Since the average script has 110+ scenes , this estimate puts the total impact of a film or TV production at around 1,811.7 tons of CO2.
For our calculations, we took the average of these three measurements, for an estimate of 2,498 tons of CO2 released by a single large production shot on-location.
What about smaller productions, like the production of a television commercial? Ad Net Zero estimates that production of a typical TV commercial generates at least 100 tons of CO2.
The inclusion of A-list talent increases the impact substantially–Adweek estimates that each A-lister adds around 24 additional tons of CO2 emissions to a commercial production, based on travel and accommodations for the talent and their support staff.
We think Ad Net Zero’s estimates are a good starting point, but they miss a crucial component of on-location shoots: diesel generators. Many of the productions in our core commercial production audience (automotive) are shot in exotic, remote locations with no electrical power.
Shooting in these locations requires the use of large diesel generators. These generators release at least 2.15x more CO2 than the power grid . For that reason, we estimate that a typical TV commercial shot with traditional production in our industry releases around 200 tons of CO2.
Climate Benefits of Virtual Production
Now that we’ve laid out the climate impacts of traditional production, let’s explore the benefits of virtual production.
Firstly, it’s important to know that there are two types of virtual production–fully virtual productions where the entire production is computer generated, and hybrid productions that combine virtual elements with physical elements in a studio.
Our Dodge Challenger photoshoot by Allan Portilho is a great example of a fully-virtual production. Portilho used our HDRi Maps and Backplates, along with a virtual vehicle 3D model, to create a production-ready automotive photoshoot without ever personally going on-location.
In contrast, our virtual productions with Volkswagen are a great example of a hybrid production. Using LED walls, Volkeswagon placed actors and vehicles in front of a virtual scene in a real-life production studio, creating a seamless blend of real and virtual.
Based on our data, both types of virtual productions result in large reductions in CO2 emissions when compared to traditional productions. Sony, for example, showed that hybrid productions result in a 76% reduction in CO2 emissions.
Some productions achieve even higher reductions. Chris Chaundler writes in Shots that a recent production in which he participated reduced CO2 emissions by 99% versus on-location shooting . TVB Europe estimates a 90% reduction for virtual productions . Likewise, Variety estimates a reduction of 99.21% for fully-virtual productions.
These estimates are helpful, but we believe they require adjustment. Most do not appear to account for the CO2 emissions of producing virtual backgrounds.These are far lower than traditional on-location shoots, but aren’t zero.
A photographer still needs to travel to a physical location to shoot a CG background, and there is processing and computer storage to account for as well. Sony’s detailed study appears to come the closest to accounting for this various factors.
Looking at data from various studies–showing an emissions reduction of between 76% and 99%--and our own real-world data, we estimate that a hybrid production reduces CO2 emissions by 75% versus a traditional on-location production, and a fully-virtual production reduces emissions by 95%.
Our Climate Impact
Now that we have basic numbers in place, we can begin to assess our own climate impact here at CGI.Backgrounds. We had worked in virtual production for approximately 20 years, since just before our company’s founding in 2004.
Although we don’t share specifics of our customer base and all the productions we participate in, we supply the virtual backgrounds for approximately 100 productions per year, averaged over our 20 year history. Of those, the majority (an estimated 60%) are small, and around 40% are large.
An example of a small production is the single-location photoshoot shared in Portilho’s Challenger photoshoot. In a traditional production environment, this would require several days of location prep and scouting in New York City, the shipment and return of a vehicle, travel for a crew, and other emissions-heavy activities.
An example of a large production is a multi-location campaign for Mercedes Benz and Merkeley + Partners for which we supplied backgrounds. This campaign involved 8+ vehicles shown in different locations around North America. Producing it with traditional methods would likely have produced at least 2,800 tons of CO2 emissions–possibly far more.
The majority of our productions are all-virtual. We conservatively estimate that 70% of our productions have no on-location component, although the actual number may be higher.
Here is the relative breakdown of productions:
CGI.B Impact
Productions per year
100
Percent large
40%
Percent small
60%
Percent hybrid
30%
Percent all virtual
70%
Those figures–combined with our basic data on CO2 reductions from virtual production –yield the following total CO2 emissions reductions estimates per year, for all the productions in which we’ve participated.
Yearly Impact
Productions Per Year and
CO2 Reduction (tons)
Large, All Virtual
28
66,446.80
Large, Hybrid
12
22,482.00
Small, All Virtual
42
7,980.00
Small, Hybrid
18
2,700.00
Total
100
99,608.80
Multiply our average yearly reduction by our 20 year operating history, and we estimate that virtual productions in which CGI.Backgrounds has participated have reduced CO2 emissions by a total of 1,992,176 tons since we launched our company.
According to the EPA’s calculator , that’s the equivalent of 429,253 gas-powered passenger vehicles driven for one year, or 224,167,436 gallons of gasoline consumed. It’s the same as the emissions of 250,940 American homes, or 11,000+ railcars filled with coal.
While we can’t take full credit for these reductions–that credit goes to the visionary brands and creative teams who have opted to adopt climate-friendly virtual production processes which utilize our HDRi Maps and Backplates–we’re proud to have helped our partners achieve these staggering, hugely beneficial climate impacts.
The Future of Virtual Production
As more studios and creative teams recognize the massive cost-savings and climate impacts of virtual production, we anticipate that more productions will adopt the technique.
The automotive industry was a first-mover in the virtual production space, but many other industries are now following suit. The pandemic and the inability to travel have accelerated progress toward the widespread adoption of virtual production.
Companies in fields ranging from fashion to architectural visualization are increasingly adopting virtual production techniques. With hybrid productions, brands can still use A-list talent and produce award-winning media while cutting their CO2 emissions dramatically.
New technologies–from more efficient servers to lower-energy LED lighting–will likely further reduce the CO2 emissions of virtual productions over time.
As we look to Earth Day, we see a bright future for virtual production and its climate impact. We’re proud to have played a role in this transition, and we hope that by sharing our data, we can inspire others to adopt climate-friendly virtual production processes.
Need help obtaining high-quality CG backgrounds for your own virtual production? Reach out to us at contact@cgibackgrounds.com
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